30 Sweeping Facts About The Karate Kid

You'd better start practicing those crane kicks again! More than 30 years after Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence faced off in one of cinema's most iconic showdowns, The Karate Kid has officially made a comeback. Cobra Kai—the series that sees Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) pitted against Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) once again—is getting ready to launch its third season on YouTube this spring. While we await a new season of the hit series, let's take a look back at the movie that started it all.

1. Pat Morita was initially turned down for the role of Mr. Miyagi.

Portrait of actor Pat Morita standing against a tapestry, circa 1988.

Nancy R. Schiff/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In the early 1980’s, Pat Morita was best known for his comedic work as Arnold, the restaurant owner on Happy Days. According to the 2013 bookThe Films of John G. Avildsen, Morita was Avildsen’s first choice for Miyagi; however, producer Jerry Weintraub felt that audiences would not take him seriously in the role due to his background in comedy. After Morita grew a beard and added a Japanese accent to his screen test, an impressed Weintraub had a change of heart and Morita was given the part.

2. Daniel Larusso was originally Daniel Webber.

Portrait of The Karate Kid star Ralph Macchio in 1984.

Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Wait. What?!? It sounds blasphemous, but in original versions of The Karate Kid script, Daniel LaRusso's last name was Webber.

3. Johnny Lawrence was Donald Rice.

While we’re at it, let’s get this out of the way, too: Johnny Lawrence’s name was originally Donald Rice.

4. "You’re The Best" was originally written for a different movie.

Although "You're the Best" will be forever tied to the montage of fight scenes during the All-Valley Karate Tournament, Joe Esposito’s song was originally written by Bill Conti and Allee Willis to be used in Rocky III, but was ultimately replaced with Survivor’s "Eye of the Tiger." Esposito revealed this information in a 2008 interview on the Adam Carolla Show where he said that "You're the Best" was turned down for use in the movie Flashdance as well, and was replaced with Michael Sembello’s "Maniac." The '80s truly had an embarrassment of riches when it came to montage songs.

5. Freddy really did take a soccer ball to the face.

A scene from The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

As Daniel and his new friends play soccer on the beach, his eye is caught by Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), the beautiful blonde from the Hills. Coolly trying to impress her, Daniel shows off his soccer skills only to have the ball knocked away by Freddy (played by Israel Juarbe). Watch closely and you’ll see that poor Freddy takes a direct hit to the face as he brings Daniel back to reality.

At the Halloween dance, Daniel mentions that his shower costume was made by a friend. The assumption that he’s referring to Mr. Miyagi is confirmed in the previous scene where parts of the shower costume can been seen hanging in the background as Miyagi prepares jack-o-lanterns in his workshop.

7. Many of The Karate Kid's locations are still intact—and look mostly the same.

Google Maps/Columbia Pictures

A few sources provide fascinating photos of the current state of many filming locations used in The Karate Kid. For the most part, these California-based locations are still recognizable and look very much the same as they did back in the mid-1980s. For a complete look at these filming locations, visit itsfilmedthere.com.

8. It took a while for Karate Kid fans to find the filming location for Mr. Miyagi’s house.

Mr. Miyagi's home in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Although most filming locations from The Karate Kid were found long ago, Mr. Miyagi’s house eluded location-hunting fans of the film for a long time. But in 2014, taking the art of finding filming locations to a whole new level, one fan did some major sleuthing to finally confirm the location of Mr. Miyagi’s house—which, sadly, was demolished in the late 1980s.

9. Mr. Miyagi’s workshop was actually a parking lot.

Google Maps/Columbia Pictures

While the apartment complex itself looks very much the same in real life as it does in the film, one exception is the portion representing Mr. Miyagi's workshop. Opening to the exterior of the building, this area of the complex was actually an open parking area which was walled off for the sake of the film. Comparing a shot from the film to an image taken from Google Maps Street View, this transformation is very clear.

10. Two run-ins between Daniel and Johnny were deleted from The Karate Kid’s final cut.

Elisabeth Shue, Ralph Macchio, and William Zabka in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The original The Karate Kid script includes two confrontations between Daniel and Johnny that were eventually cut from the film. The first takes place in the school cafeteria, just after Daniel has bought lunch for Ali. Seeing them about to take a seat, Johnny hurries over just in time to sneak a piece of blueberry pie onto Daniel’s chair. Standing up with his pants covered in blueberries, Daniel is equal parts embarrassed and livid. In a brave act of revenge, Daniel smears what is left of the pie across Johnny’s shirt and mayhem ensues. A photo from this scene can be found on the back of the B.B. Hiller novelization of The Karate Kid.

The other scene occurs later in the film and also takes place at school. Coming up from a drink at the fountain, Daniel finds himself face to face with Johnny and stands up for himself once again by questioning the practices of the Cobra Kai.

Ralph Macchio and William Zabka in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The original script reveals this exchange:

Daniel: We both know you can kick my a** seven ways from Sunday. So why do you still bother?
Johnny: Maybe ‘cause I like to.
Daniel: You ever think he might be wrong?
Johnny: Who?
Daniel: Your teacher.
Johnny: Watch your mouth, a**hole.

11. Mr. Miyagi gave Daniel a sweet ride.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Casual viewers of The Karate Kid know that Mr. Miyagi gives Daniel a cool yellow car for his birthday. Classic car enthusiasts may recognize this smooth ride as a 1948 Ford Super DeLuxe Club convertible.

12. Chuck Norris did not decline the role of John Kreese.

Actor Chuck Norris in Henndorf am Wallersee, Austria.

Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images

It is widely rumored that Chuck Norris was initially considered for the part of Cobra Kai Sensei John Kreese, but turned down the role as he did not want to be associated with a character that represented martial arts in such a cruel and aggressive way. Norris has stated that he was never offered the part—but likely would have turned it down for these reasons if he had been. Likewise, director John Avildsen does not recall Norris being offered the role.

13. Sensei Kreese was a military veteran.

Martin Kove, Ralph Macchio, and Pat Morita in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Upon Daniel’s first visit to the Cobra Kai dojo, he is faced with a wall full of awards recognizing the accomplishments of the students and their sensei. Among the plaques and trophies is a photograph showing Sensei Kreese wearing full military fatigues and recognizing him as “Karate Champion” and a U.S. Army captain from 1970-1972. Kreese’s military service is referenced again later in the Karate Kid trilogy when viewers are introduced to Terry Silver—a Vietnam veteran and successor to Kreese as the Cobra Kai sensei.

14. Daniel LaRusso went to West Valley High School.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Although the name of Daniel's school is never mentioned in the film, it is subtly referenced in a scene at his locker, just before he tells Ali about the "agreement" he has made with the Cobra Kai. A sticker inside the locker door suggests that Daniel attends West Valley High School.

15. Rocket Computers went bankrupt.

Randee Heller in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Daniel and his mother moved to California as a result of her new job with Rocket Computers (“Flight to the future!”). The original script reveals why Freddy had “never heard of it” and also sheds some light on why it seems that Mrs. LaRusso might be an employee of the restaurant across from the Cobra Kai dojo.

As she shares with Daniel:

“They went bankrupt! ... [But] listen to this. I walk out of Rocket with the beginning of Excedrin headache one through ten about to come on, and I’m going back to the car when this woman comes flying out of this restaurant, The Orient Express, and she’s screaming, ‘I quit! I quit!’ Right behind her is this guy and he’s yelling just as loud, ‘You can’t quit! You’re fired!’ It’s one minute to noon, people are coming in to lunch, I’m the first but only applicant—I got the job!”

When Daniel questions her new position as a waitress, his mother clarifies that she is not a waitress. She is a hostess.

16. Mrs. LaRusso reads vintage magazines.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Mr. Miyagi stops by the LaRusso's apartment to fix the faucet and finds Daniel practicing karate. While Miyagi was surprised that Daniel was trying to learn karate from a book, it is also surprising that the magazine underneath the book was published in April 1969.

I guess this then-15-year-old Easter issue of Family Circle explains the bunny cake clipping seen hanging on the refrigerator door (although it doesn’t explain why the LaRussos were planning for Easter in September).

17. Pat Morita did not perform the crane kick.

Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The tournament semi-finalists included Johnny Lawrence, Bobby Brown, Daniel LaRusso, and a character credited only as "Karate Semi-Finalist," played by black belt Darryl Vidal. Vidal shows off some flashy moves before being eliminated by Johnny, who advances to face Daniel in the final.

Vidal is now a 10th degree black belt and one of the most respected teachers in the sport. His involvement with The Karate Kid was not limited to the action seen in the tournament. Earlier, in one of the most memorable scenes from the film, Mr. Miyagi performs the crane kick from atop a wooden post on the beach as Daniel observes from a distance.

But it was not actually Morita on the post—it was Darryl Vidal, serving as his stunt double. These details are confirmed in the DVD commentary track and Vidal himself provided this information to the Karate Kid Site at fast-rewind.com: "I am the stunt double for the scene where Mr. Miyagi is on the post on the beach," he said. "It isn't noted in the cast list at the end where I am just listed as the semi-finalist. I am dressed in a body-suit, and bald-head wig."

18. Daniel and his friends wear some amazing T-shirts.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Although Daniel hides his “No More Mr. Nice Guy” T-shirt under a button-up, Freddy proudly wears his “Makin’ Bacon” shirt for all the world to see.

19. Happy Gilmore’s grandma lives in Daniel’s apartment building.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Entering his new apartment building for the first time, Daniel stops to speak with a woman who reveals she is from Parsippany, New Jersey. Moments later, she provides Daniel with some less-than-clear directions to Mr. Miyagi’s workshop. You may recognize her as Frances Bay—the character actress who played Happy Gilmore’s grandmother. She also had a role in Twin Peaks and was the woman who Jerry stole a loaf of marble rye bread from in Seinfeld.

20. A band from The Karate Kid soundtrack appears in the movie.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The Karate Kid soundtrack includes the song "No Shelter" by the band Broken Edge. The band can be seen in the film playing on stage at the Halloween dance.

21. The Karate Kid fight choreographer Pat Johnson was an expert, a referee, and a toy.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment // Remco

Pat Johnson was responsible for the choreography of The Karate Kid's fight scenes. Johnson, a well-known karate expert, also played the part of the referee in the film's final match. When the Remco line of Karate Kid action figures hit shelves in 1986, a figure based on Johnson as the tournament official was included in the Competition Center set.

22. The Karate Kid includes some famous family ties.

YouTube

Dutch, a member of the Cobra Kai, was played by Chad McQueen—son of legendary actor Steve McQueen.

Early in the film, Freddy invites Daniel to a beach party with his friends. Among those friends was Chucky, played by Frank Burt Avalon, who happens to be the son of singer and beach film veteran Frankie Avalon.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

At the Halloween dance, Daniel has a raw egg smashed on his head by a guy dressed as a chicken. The chicken boy was played by Todd Lookinland—brother of Mike Lookinland, Bobby of The Brady Bunch fame. Larry Drake, later of L.A. Law, is credited as "Yahoo #2," and you may also recognize Larry Scott from the original Revenge of the Nerds in the role of Jerry.

Lastly, although uncredited, actor Andrew Shue—brother of Elisabeth Shue—appears briefly as an arbitrary member of the Cobra Kai. He is best known for playing the role of Billy Campbell on Melrose Place.

23. It's all fun and games until someone bruises his chin.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

In the DVD commentary, Ralph Macchio suggests that the bruise seen on his chin is real—a result of a roundhouse kick that struck him during the Halloween night fight against some teens dressed up in skeleton costumes.

24. Pat Morita's given name is used in the credits.

Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita in The Karate Kid (1984).

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

As previously mentioned, Morita was well known prior to The Karate Kid for his comedy work on several TV shows, including a recurring stint as Ah Chew on Sanford and Son. Producer Jerry Weintraub suggested that Morita's credit in the film include his given name—Noriyuki—so as to sound more "ethnic." Therefore, the role of Mr. Miyagi is credited to Noriyuki "Pat" Morita.

25. The tournament victory was not supposed to be the end of The Karate Kid.

The Karate Kid was not intended to conclude with Daniel's victory over Johnny at the tournament. The opening scene in the sequel The Karate Kid Part II, which sees a parking lot confrontation between Kreese and Miyagi, was The Karate Kid's original ending. Both B.B. Hiller's novelization of the film and early copies of the script conclude with Miyagi tweaking Kreese's nose and the members of the Cobra Kai dropping their belts around their defeated leader.

26. Daniel should have been disqualified from the tournament ... maybe.

In an amazing breakdown written for overthinkingit.com, Matthew Belinkie considers the legality of the crane kick within the rules of a typical karate competition. According to Belinkie, competition rules prohibit participants from striking their opponent using "full power."

Going on to discuss this matter with an expert in karate competition, he confirms that in most cases, Daniel would have been disqualified as a result of the maneuver.

28. The main Karate Kid reunited for an awesome music video.

What do you get when you combine Dennis Haskins from Saved By the Bell, the core of The Karate Kid cast, and the band No More Kings? You get the amazing 2007 music video for a song called "Sweep the Leg."

29. Ralph Macchio has poked fun at his enduring Karate Kid character.

In 2010, Ralph Macchio appeared in a video for Funny or Die as he humorously attempted to shed his "good guy" image.

30. A complete rehearsal of The Karate Kid is available on YouTube.

Hold on to your seats, Karate Kid fans. If you weren't aware of this already, prepare to have your minds blown. An entire rehearsal of The Karate Kid is available to view on YouTube. Included in the run-through are several dialogue variations and a few scenes that didn't make it to the final cut of the film. If you're a diehard Karate Kid fan, you'll definitely want to check this out for yourself.

This Smart Accessory Converts Your Instant Pot Into an Air Fryer

If you can make a recipe in a slow cooker, Dutch oven, or rice cooker, you can likely adapt it for an Instant Pot. Now, this all-in-one cooker can be converted into an air fryer with one handy accessory.

This Instant Pot air fryer lid—currently available on Amazon for $80—adds six new cooking functions to your 6-quart Instant Pot. You can select the air fry setting to get food hot and crispy fast, using as little as 2 tablespoons of oil. Other options include roast, bake, broil, dehydrate, and reheat.

Many dishes you would prepare in the oven or on the stovetop can be made in your Instant Pot when you switch out the lids. Chicken wings, French fries, and onion rings are just a few of the possibilities mentioned in the product description. And if you're used to frying being a hot, arduous process, this lid works without consuming a ton of energy or heating up your kitchen.

The lid comes with a multi-level air fry basket, a broiling and dehydrating tray, and a protective pad and storage cover. Check it out on Amazon.

For more clever ways to use your Instant Pot, take a look at these recipes.

At Mental Floss, we only write about the products we love and want to share with our readers, so all products are chosen independently by our editors. Mental Floss has affiliate relationships with certain retailers and may receive a percentage of any sale made from the links on this page. Prices and availability are accurate as of the time of publication.

Q&A: Kristen Bell Celebrates Diversity In Her New Kid's Book, The World Needs More Purple People

Kristen Bell is one of those household names that brings to mind a seemingly endless list of outstanding performances in both TV and film. She is Veronica Mars. She is the very memorable Sarah Marshall. She's the voice of Gossip Girl. She just recently wrapped up her NBC series The Good Place. Your nieces and nephews likely know her as Princess Anna from the Frozen films. She also has one of the most uplifting and positive presences on social media.

Now, adding to her long list of accomplishments, Kristen Bell is the published author of a new children’s book called The World Needs More Purple People. Born out of seeing how cultural conversations were skewing more toward the things that divide us, the new picture book—which Bell co-authored with Benjamin Hart—encourages kids to see what unites us all as humans.

We spoke with Kristen Bell about what it means to be a purple person, her new animated series Central Park, and becoming a foster failure. We also put her knowledge of sloths to the test.

How did The World Needs More Purple People book come to be?

Basically my genius buddy, Ben Hart, and I were looking around and sort of seeing how our children were watching us debate healthily at the dinner table, which is fine. But it occurred to us that everything they were seeing was a disagreement. And that’s because that can be fun for adults, but it’s not a good basis for kids to start out on. We realized we were not really giving our kids a ton of examples of us, as adults, talking about the things that bring us together. So The World Needs More Purple People was born.

We decided to create a roadmap of similarities to give kids a jumping off point of how to look for similarities ... [because] if you can see similarities, you’re more likely to walk through the world with an open mind. But if you walk into a conversation seeing only differences, your mind is going to think differently of that person’s opinion and you just never know when you’re going to hear an opinion that might enlighten you. So we wanted to give kids this roadmap to follow to basically say, “Here are some great features that no one can argue with. Have these features and you’ll have similarities with almost everyone on the planet.”

Part of the reason I love the book so much is because it encourages kids to ask questions, even if they're silly. What are some silly questions you’ve had to answer for your kids?

Oh my god. How much time do you have? Once she asked in rapid fire: Is Santa Claus real? Why is Earth? Who made dogs?

How do you even answer that?

It was too much; I had to walk away. Kids have a ton of questions, and as they get older and more verbal, the funny thing that happens is they get more insecure. So we wanted to encourage the question-asking, and also encourage the uniqueness of every child. Which is why Dan Wiseman, who did our illustrations, really captured this middle point between Ben and I. Ben is very sincere, and I am very quirky. And I feel like the illustrations were captured brilliantly because we also wanted a ton of diversity because that is what the book is about.

The book is about seeing different things and finding similarities. Each kid in the book looks a little bit different, but also a little bit the same. The message at the end of the book is with all these features that you can point out and recognize in other people—loving to laugh, working really hard, asking great questions ... also know that being a purple person means being uniquely you in the hopes that kids will recognize that purple people come in every color.

What was it like behind-the-scenes of writing a children’s book with two little girls at home? Were they tough critics?

Shockingly, no. They did not have much interest in the fact that I was writing a children’s book until there were pictures. Then they were like, “Oh now I get it.” But prior to that, when I’d run the ideas by them, they were not as interested. But I did read it to them. They gave me the two thumbs up. Ben has two kids as well, and all our kids are different ages. Once we got the thumbs up from the 5-year-old, the 7-year-old, the 8-year-old, and the 11-year-old, we thought, “OK, this is good to go.”

I hope that people, and kids especially, really do apply this as a concept. We would love to see this as a curriculum going into schools if they wanted to use it to ask: What happened today in your life that was purple? What could you do to make tomorrow more purple? Like as a concept of a way of living.

Weirdly, writing a children’s book was a way of getting to the adults. If it’s a children’s book, there is a high probability an adult is going to either be reading it to you or be there while you’re reading it—which means you’re getting two demographics. If we had just written a novel about this kind of concept, we’d never reach the kids. But by writing a kid's book, we also access the adults.

Your new show Central Park looks so incredible. What can you tell us about the show and your character Molly?

I am so excited for the show to come out. I’ve seen it and it is exceptional. It is so, so, so funny and so much fun. I signed on because I got a phone call from my friend Josh Gad, who said, “I’m going to try to put together a cartoon for us to work on.” And I said, “Yes. Goodbye.” And he and Loren Bochard, who created Bob’s Burgers, took basically all of our friends—Leslie Odom Jr., Stanley Tucci, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs, and myself—and created a family who lives in the middle of Central Park.

I play a teenager named Molly who is very socially awkward but has this incredible, relentlessly creative, vivacious personality going on only inside her head … and it’s a musical! So, she's awkward on the outside but when she sings her songs she really comes to life. And she's a comic book artist, so the cartoon often switches to what she's seeing in her head.

It's so funny and Josh Gad plays this busker who lives in Central Park, who is the narrator. Stanley Tucci plays this older woman named Bitsy who is trying to build a shopping mall in the center of Central Park, and the family’s job is to basically save Central Park. But the music is so incredible. We’ve got two music writers, Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel, who write the majority of the music, but we also have guest writers that come in every episode. So Sara Bareilles wrote some music and Cyndi Lauper wrote some music. It is such a fun show.

My husband, who does not like cartoons or musicals, watched the first couple of episodes, and he looked at me and said, “You’ve got something really special in your hands.” And he doesn’t like anything. It made me so happy. I cannot wait until this show comes out, I am so proud of it.

What was it like to reunite with Josh Gad on another musical animated series that isn't Frozen?

Josh and I talk a lot, and we had a lot of behind-the-scenes conversations about how we can work together again, just because we adore each other. And part of it is because we get along socially, and part of it is because we trust each other comedically. He's a creator and writer more so than I am, so I usually leave it up to him and say, "What’s our next project?" We have other things in the pipeline we would love to do together, but [Central Park] was an immediate yes because I trust how he writes. Josh is at every single one of my recording sessions; he is very hands-on with the shows that he does or produces or creates. I trust him as much as I trust my husband, creatively, and that’s saying a lot.

Given your well-documented love of sloths, we do have to throw out a few true or false questions about sloths and put your knowledge to the test …

Oh my gosh. OK, now I'm nervous. Hit me.

True or false: Sloths fart more than humans.

Fart more than humans?

Yes.

I’m going to say it's true.

It’s actually false. Sloths don’t fart at all. They might be the only mammal on the planet that does not fart.

You’re kidding. Another reason to love them. You know, I was trying to think medically about it. I know they only poop once a week and that if you only go poop once a week ... I thought, “Well in order to keep your GI healthy, perhaps you have to have some sort of flow from the top to the bottom during the seven-day waiting period until you release.”

True or false: Sloths are so slow that algae sometimes grows on them.

One hundred percent true. In the wild, they’re always covered in algae and it helps their fur, all those microorganisms. But in zoos, they don’t have it.

Nice. OK, last one. True or false: Sloths poop from trees.

No way. They go down to the ground, and they rub their little tushies on the ground, and then they go back up.

You are correct.

I know a fair amount about sloths but the farting thing was new. My kids will be excited to hear that.

We heard recently that you are a part of the “foster failure” club. What went wrong? Er—right?

Well, what I learned from Veronica Mars is you root for and cherish and uplift the underdog always. And my first foster failure was in 2018; I found the most undesirable dog that existed on the planet. She is made of toothpicks, it is impossible for her to gain weight. She has one eye. She looks like a walking piece of garbage. Her name is Barbara. She's 11 years old. And I saw a picture of her online and I said, “Yes. I just want to bring her over. I don’t even need to know anything else about her other than this picture," which was the most hideous picture. I mean it looks like a Rorschach painting or something. It was so awful. I was like, “She’s mine. I’ll take care of her. I’ve got this.” And it turns out she is quite lovely even though she can be pretty annoying. But she is our Barbara Biscuit, and she is one of the most charismatic dogs I have ever met. She piddles wherever she damn well pleases. So that is a bummer, because she is untrainable, but we love her.

That was our first failure. Then last year, we genuinely attempted to just foster a dog named Frank. And about two weeks in, I realized Frank was in love with me—like in a human way. He thought he was my boyfriend.

Oh no …

I just felt like … I didn’t even want a new dog—well I shouldn’t say that, because I always want all the dogs—but we weren’t planning on getting a new dog. But I had to have a conversation with my family and I said, “I think it’s going to be like child separation if I separate him. We have to keep him.” And sure enough, he can’t be more than two feet from me at any time during the day.

Does he still give you “the eyes”?

Oh my gosh. Bedroom eyes all day long. I can’t sit down without him like … not even just sitting comfortably in my lap. He has to have my arm in his mouth or part of my hair in his mouth. He’s trying to get back in my womb or something.

That’s love.

Yeah, I said, “What am I going to do? The guy is in love with me. He can live here.” So there is foster failure number two.

Wow, so it’s Frank and Barbara.

Frank and Barbara. And we also have Lola, a 17-year-old corgi-chow chow mix. Who I have had since she was one-and-a-half, who was also a pound puppy. She is our queen bee.

Before you go, we do this thing on Twitter called #HappyHour, where we ask our followers some get-to-know-you questions. If you could change one rule in any board game, what would it be?

I am obviously going to Catan ... oh I know exactly what I would do. In Catan, I would allow participants to buy a city without buying a settlement first. In Catan, you have to upgrade from a settlement to a city first, which is a waste of cards. If you have the cards for a city, you should be able to buy a city.